Taking Sides in South Africa

“Taking Sides in South Africa” is a photographic documentary circulated by OXFAM-Canada, which documents the conflict in South Africa during 1985/86. These photographs evoke the spirit of the anti-apartheid movement and its hope that a new society, responsive to the black majority, can be built in South Africa. They were taken by AFRAPIX, South Africa’s first non-racial photographers co-op. These photographs represent a broader representation of today’s South Africa than that which is depicted by the media. AFRAPIX photographers are committed to giving images a fuller narrative context and are alert to the need to balance photographs of destruction and oppression with affirmative images of resistance and regeneration. Theirs is a collective effort that strives to unearth symbols beneath the surface of the conflict to help the society feel its way out of the perishing present towards a new, non-racial, democratic South Africa. Both existing copies of “Taking Sides in South Africa” were shipped out of the country just prior to the latest State of Emergency which is th only reason why the OXFAM-Canada copy is in circulation today. Many of the negatives printed for this exhibition are now in the hands of the South African polica. Two AFRAPIX photographers are also currently in detention.